


Buy Me a Plane Ticket

by RiaTheDreamer



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Drabble, Dysfunctional Family, Family, Gen, Grif wasn't drafted, Guilt, Lies, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:20:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23361613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiaTheDreamer/pseuds/RiaTheDreamer
Summary: The Grifs after the draft that didn't happen.
Relationships: Dexter Grif & Kaikaina Grif | Sister
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	Buy Me a Plane Ticket

“I’m throwing a party Saturday,” Kai tells Grif over the phone.

This means two things: a) mom is gone again, because Kai wouldn’t dare to have guests over with mom passed out on the couch, and b) it’s an invitation for him to go back home.

It’s been a while since he’d visited them. Her. It’s been, what, a month, at least. The days – okay, _weeks_ – after he dropped out of college have been a drunk blur, mostly.

She doesn’t even know he dropped out.

“I’m giving you a, what, five days warning this time. So that means no excuses. Unless you have a date. Which I can forgive in case it’s a good fuck.”

“Kai,” Grif says. He doesn’t have the time to say more.

“You know, you’re being a very shitty role model right now. Why would I ever study if I knew it’d make me a nerd.”

“I’m pretty sure the pamphlets warn you about that.”

“Okay, but one thing is being a nerd, the other is being a buzzkill which you _are_. C’mon. Give me one good reason to not be at my party.”

There are so many good excuses all around him. Most of them lies; homework, a job interview, a _date_. Some excuses wouldn’t even be lies; he doesn’t have the money for a plane ticket back home. In fact, all he has now is a debt he needs to get rid of. That, and a nasty headache and a bad taste in his mouth.

But Grif’s brain is still hungover, still high from the surrealism that is his life, and so he says, “’cause I’m in space?”

There’s a beat.

“What?”

“Kai-“

“A plane is like, a thousand times cheaper than a space rocket. That’s like, the opposite of an excuse. College doesn’t allow holidays, that’s like a rule-“

“I’m not going on holiday.”

“Then what the fuck are you gonna do in space?”

“Fight aliens,” Grif says. “I think.”

“…Wait, what?”

Her voice is small, all of a sudden.

“I’ll probably just be their errand boy, or some shit. Even that’s better than paperwork-“

“You’re joining the army?! Why would you do that?!”

It hits him, the pain in her voice. The betrayal.

Yeah, why would you do that, Grif?

So this is the point where he should tell her how much he dislikes his sorry excuse of a life, and how he’s trying to put it all behind him, his old life, the one that, sadly enough, includes her. That’s why he’s fleeing, the coward he is, and he can’t bring her along.

But being a coward, he can’t say that.

How ironic is it that a coward is joining the army?

“I got drafted,” he says, too quickly, in one single breath, just to stop her from asking more questions he can’t bear to answer.

Kai is sniffing. He can hear it. “What? When?”

“Last week.”

“Since when did they start drafting again?”

“It’s an, uh, one-man draft. I was the unlucky one.” Since Kai can’t see it, Grif buries his face against his free hand. “I didn’t tell you ‘cause I got myself drunk because of the – well, you know why now.”

“Okay,” Kai says.

Grif can feel himself frown. “Okay?”

“Okay, yeah, that’s a valid excuse. So, I’ll see you next week, then?”

The sense of normalcy in her voice stands out as too thin, too artificial. It reminds him of those fake eyelashes she’d wear, too big against the cheap glue that failed to keep them in place, but she’d been so convinced it made her look prettier.

“I don’t think I’ll be home next week either.”

“Oh. How long is it gonna take, then?”

“Until the war’s stopped, I guess. That’s sorta the reason they need us in the first place.”

“Right.” He can hear her breathe, steady but shaking. “I’ll see you when you get home, then?”

“Yeah. We’ll hold the greatest party ever then!”

“Oh yeah. We’ll hire a DJ, and a stripper, and glowsticks-“

“Kai, I swear to god, if you try to eat glowsticks again, I will strangle you. It will not make you glow in the dark. And no, drinking bleach won’t fix the ingested glowsticks problem.”

Grif doesn’t think there’s a god up there, but if there is, he prays Kai can take care of herself while he’s gone. She’s not his responsibility. Well, she is, but only because mom dropped that on him in the first place. But he’s a grownup, and so is she. Almost.

So why is he feeling worse now than when he first enlisted?

“Fine. I’ll dodge the glowsticks, you’ll dodge the bullets. See you when you get home, right?”

“Yeah. Bye,” he says, but she’s already hung up on him.

Grif thinks that maybe Kai will go and cry herself to sleep now. But there’s a bigger chance she’ll get herself drunk. Staring at the empty bottles in front of him, he can’t really blame her. That coping method seems to run in the family.

He knows, when Kai sees her again, she will tell their mom that he said hi, even though he explicitly didn’t say so. Maybe Kai is trying to save the remains of what should be the Grif family, or maybe she just doesn’t pick up on his bitterness.

Maybe it’s too nuanced for her. Like colors.

But Grif likes to think her life is still prettier without it.

**Author's Note:**

> it just hit me; i haven't seen any fics dealing with the moment when Grif chose to lie. so this happened. I admit, i preferred the draft, but i'm trying to deal with the fact that it isn't canon anymore. sad.
> 
> take care of yourself in these trying times.
> 
> as always: English isn't my native language and you can find me as riathedreamer on tumblr and twitter.


End file.
